


Day by Day

by ladyofrosefire



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Domesticity, F/M, First Time, Samsteve is only mentioned unfortunately, Sappiness, Shmoop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-07-20
Packaged: 2018-07-25 12:51:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 3,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7533448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofrosefire/pseuds/ladyofrosefire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My fills for the last buckynat week, very late, because I'm backing things up over here</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Anon requested “Their first time” (M)

Her legs squeeze his throat, and the Winter Soldier shoves at her, hands moving instinctively to the angle he needs to throw her off of him. He finds it, but does not push, even as his vision begins to grey, until he notices that he’s hard inside his tac pants and he can _smell_ – all musk and salt and–

He comes up swearing, the shock of it almost enough to distract him. 

 

She corners him in the locker room after. Not with her body. He could run if he chose, but he does not choose. He lets her move closer, watches her shake out her flaming hair, and then reaches out to draw her to him. 

Her lips meet his and it’s so _familiar_  he shakes with it. 

 

That night in her room, he lets her touch him the way he cannot remember anyone having ever touched him. He trembles, sighs, clings to her and the sheets. Both of them are as silent as they can be, and the rustling of the sheets would hide the sound of their breath if their mouths were not so close. He cannot stop kissing her until she slides down his body, marking him with what feels like fire and making his heart skip as she takes him into her mouth.

He comes too quickly, but she kisses him– he can taste salt on her lips– and slips out of her underwear. 

Then her thighs are around his head again and he wants to _laugh_. Instead, he does as well as he can as she guides him, tells him how to touch and where and oh _oh OH–_

After, he holds her for as long as he can before it turns from indulgence to danger, the smell of her hair filling his senses and her skin soft against his. She traces patterns on his chest, a smile on her lips. When he must go, she releases him, but he thinks, maybe, he can feel reluctance in how her fingers trail down his arms.

He comes to her again the next night. 


	2. Anon requested “modern au. James as a farmer/cowboy" (T)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> T-ish for probably gratuitous descriptions of wet James Barnes

Natasha knew every one of the clichés about rich girls and the boys that end the horses. She knew how her uncle would take it if his ward– nevermind that she’s out of college– started fucking “the help”. Even the memory of him saying that twisted her mouth and her stomach, souring her temper. She shifted in the saddle and reached up to brush a few strands of sweat-damp hair out of her face. Thick, if dry, heat turned the air thick in her lungs and slicked her skin with sweat. It gathered between her breasts and at the small of her back.

The heat only intensified once she left the cover of the trees and arrived on the shore of the lake. She dismounted smoothly and carefully tied her mare’s reins to a convenient tree. At the sound of a splash behind her, Natasha turned.

God _damn._

The man who cared for their horses, blue eyed, dark haired, _beautiful_ , cut easily through the water. He was, as far as she could tell, naked, or nearly. He could not see her, and only that kept her from staring completely unashamedly. As it was…

Natasha kept her eyes on him as she kicked off her riding boots. She only looked away for a moment as she tugged her shirt over her head. When she turned back from hanging it over a branch, James was making his way back to shore. He’d kept his dogtags on, she noted appreciatively. They swung slightly as he walked the last few feet. Fuck, even his _legs…_  She licked her lips idly as she tracked the passage of a few beads of water down his abdomen. 

When she met his eyes, he was staring at her, his mouth slightly open as though he meant to speak and had forgotten what it was he wanted to say. She smirked, shrugged, and then, as he reached the pebbled shore, started toward the water. Once he was a few paces further up onto dry land, she bent at the waist and tugged off her riding pants. 

From behind her, Natasha heard the clear sound of James tripping over his feet.

With a smile, she dashed into the cool water and through herself in headlong. Time for her to cool off.

For now. 


	3. Anon requested “civil war “ (G)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m gonna go with Marvel 1872 for this, honestly… that’s Civil War ish. it should also be said that I have not read these comics  
> Thanks to @finndamereyn for some of the dialogue and to elithien for this gorgeous art which inspired the scene

It’s the second time he’s gotten close enough to actually touch her, and this time, he has her in cuffs. When he tugs on them, she digs in the heels of her boots and _glares_ , lovely green eyes going sharp.

James sighs heavily. “Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder" 

“You wouldn’t." 

“I would." 

Her eyes narrow. "Wouldn’t.”

He does, somehow. She kicks him hard in the ribs, repeatedly, until he traps her legs with his arm. Then she starts slamming her bound hands into his back, right against one of the bruises from their earlier fight. 

James winces. “Hold still, or I’ll toss you over the saddle like this.” He mutters, tightening his hold on her. 

He can _feel_  her considering whether or not he means it, and she must decide he does, because she stops trying to beat the pulp out of him, which he appreciates. For such a _small_  thing, she hits _hard_. She swears, too, as fluently as any soldier he’s ever heard. And she still hits him, regardless of his threat, every time they get a whistle on the way back to his horse. It’s only a few times, so he lets it slide. Natalie-Natasha-Natalia goes on the horse first, side saddle, and he grabs her legs again before she can kick him or the horse, who is eyeing him. Probably because he can’t stop noticing how damn _beautiful_  this thief is, despite the fact that her looks should be the last thing on his mind

He’s not going to let his own _horse_ judge him. 

James ties her ankles together, and to the saddle, and then swings up behind her. He has to put his arms around her, both to keep her on, and to get to the reins. She leans theatrically against his chest and flutters her eyes at him, which he ignores. It’s harder to ignore it when she loops her arms around his neck.

“The hell do you think you’re doing?” He asks, hoping she’ll chalk the strangeness of his voice up to dust.

“Keeping myself on the horse.”

After that, they don’t speak until they make camp for the night.

He shouldn’t have been chasing her this far _anyway_ , but after so many near-misses, he just… well he doesn’t trust anyone else with her.

She makes him laugh over the small meal he shares with her, for all that he tries not to. She helps him bank the fire, too, which somehow surprises him more. When he looks at her, the glow of the coals shines in her hair and on her skin and he has to look away. 

“You can– use my spare bedroll.” He tells her, and does something foolish.

He turns his back on her. 

Natalia is still there when he returns with the blankets, watching him, her head slightly on one side like a cat’s. 

He keeps the end of a rope attached to her cuffs tied around his own wrist while he sleeps. His weapons, aside from one small knife down his boot, are with the horse, well out of her reach, and he knows she has no weapons on her– anymore.

He still sleeps fitfully, opening his eyes to check on her every so often. James knows he should have a second with him to keep watch on her, or forego sleep, but he cannot have her more rested than him. If she moves, he will wake.

He does not.

When James rises with the run the next morning, Natalia is gone, and so is the knife in his boot. 

He curses, loudly, and kicks pebbles toward the remains of the fire. When he looks around again, he can see that same, judgmental look on his horse’s face. 

“What?!” He snaps.

He’ll catch her next time.


	4. Anon requested: buckynat baby au.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, allow me to introduce you to the Magical Supertoddler: Eva. There are probably a few people who will recognize her. Setting this in MCU, sorta, since it’s Wednesday. Some warnings on this one since it concerns a combination of a child and a lab, although it does not mention torture or anything of that ilk.

There was a baby.

Alright, a toddler. She looked to be about two, and she was, somehow, miraculously, still asleep. From his memories of his sisters, James judged her by eye to be of a perfectly normal height and weight. Her hair was brown and curly, and her cheeks were rosy, and she slept peacefully. She looked like a perfect child.

The problem was that they had found her in the middle of a burning HYDRA base.

Natasha summed up his thoughts very concisely.

< _What the_ fuck?!>

James nodded agreement. Together, they stared down at the sleeping toddler. when he glanced sideways, he saw that Natasha hands were curled into tight fists, her knuckles white. She was reading the chart pinned above the child’s bed, which detailed observations and tracked her development under the influence of the newest attempt at the super soldier serum. Nothing James saw on the chart indicated any tests that wouldn’t be normal at a doctor’s office, but it still made James’s blood run cold.

Neither of them spoke for a long, long time.

“We… I’m not letting SHIELD have her.” Natasha said finally. 

James got the sense that she would grab the toddler and _run_  to keep her out of SHIELD’s hands. He would run with her, of course. He had told her he loved her and he had meant it. He had told her he would stay by her side and support her, and he meant that. If she wanted to protect this child, he was there. 

“No. We won’t.” He replied, setting a gentle hand on Natasha’s back. She slumped against his shoulder for a moment, let out a long, relieved breath, and then reached out, carefully. 

The toddler woke when Natasha touched her cheek and stared up at her with wide eyes. 

—

An hour later, they sat on the plane, the toddler between them, wrapped in an orange blanket. Her feet stuck out in the air, and she looked around curiously at the exhausted and dusty agents. She had told them her name was Eva, and when one of the others had approached her, she had screamed loudly enough to convince everyone that, first, she most definitely had benefited from the serum in some way, and second, that trying to take her from James and Natasha would end badly for everyone involved.

<She’s imprinted on us. Like a little duck.> Natasha commented, reaching over to smooth Eva’s hair. There was a look on her face like she expected the child to dissolve or turn and bite her hand off. 

Eva only looked at her. <Who’s a duck?>

She spoke Russian, apparently. 

Well.

<You’re more like a rabbit than a duck, I think.> Then he grinned. <A little bunny.>

She screwed her face up, and it took James a moment to realize that she was attempting to wiggle her nose. 

He knew the events of the earliest part of her life would catch up to her eventually. When that happened, they would be ready. James looked over at Natasha, who met his eyes and nodded. They would protect her, and help her, and ensure that she had a better life than they did.


	5. Cat Alarm Clock (G)

Natasha woke up to a paw tapping repeatedly between her eyes and a weight on her chest. She groaned quietly, shifted, and winced as Liho’s paw came down on her eyeball. “Goddammit, cat.” She muttered, and opened her eyes. 

Liho meowed. Loudly.

Beneath her– her head was on his shoulder– James stirred and opened his eyes. 

“Awww…” He reached past Natasha to scratch Liho’s head between her ears. “We’ve got a friend.”

“We’ve got an intruder.” Natasha corrected, bringing both hands up to pet Liho’s sides. 

The cat started to purr. Then she began to kneed happily, her eyes narrowed to green-gold slits. Natasha pushed at her gently. “Liho. Cut it out.”

She paused, meowed, and very pointedly resumed kneading. At least her claws stayed tucked in away from her skin. She was staring down at Natasha imperiously.

James’s hand slid down, and under Liho’s paws, his hand splayed over Natasha’s chest. “No. Only I get to do that.” 

The cat and the spy’s expressions matched.

With a huff, Liho got up, walked down Natasha’s stomach and one of her legs, and then leapt off of the bed. They watched as she slipped out the door. It stood a little open in her wake, letting another thread of light into the room. When Natasha turned her head toward the clock on the nightstand, she saw that it was about eight. Not too early, but not too late, either. She turned over and snuggled into James, pulling the sheets tighter around them. His arms wrapped around her and squeezed gently.

“We probably only have a minute before she comes back looking for food.” Natasha reminded him. 

“Shhh…” James stroked her hair. “Nope. Cat can fend for herself. She’s probably out there making eggs. Fish.”

She laughed and rubbed her cheek against his right shoulder. “Sure, darling. And you can stop petting me. _I’m_  not the cat.”

“Sure you aren’t.” He continued smoothing her hair. Slowly, her eyelids grew heavy again, and Natasha relaxed against him fully.

Just as she was about to fall back to sleep, Liho jumped up onto her back.


	6. Continuation of "Cat Alarm Clock" (G)

 

> Continuation of _Cat Alarm Clock_

Natasha keeps it a carefully guarded secret that she cannot cook beyond heating up the occasional meal and making tea or coffee. James knows, of course. Teases her about it, and then wanders into the kitchen to go and cook. 

She finds him there when she wanders out of the bedroom, wearing his one of his t-shirts and a pair of her panties. James stands at the stove, making pancakes, of course, the nerd. He wears only sweatpants, since she stole his shirt. Liho is draped around his shoulders, tail swishing gently, head tilted, ears pricked up with interest. As Natasha watches from the doorway, she reaches out a paw and mews plaintively.

James chuckles and starts flipping the pancakes. “Nuh-uh… you’ll burn your tongue.”

Liho mews again, louder.

“You know she can’t understand you, right?” Natasha asks, meandering into the kitchen. She wraps her arms around James’s waist and leans her head on his shoulder. “She’s a cat.”

Liho’s tail hits her face a moment later. 

“Sure.” James laughs again and tips his head to one side to rub his cheek against Liho’s head. “S’why she’s got…” Liho licks him and he wrinkles his nose, “A special sound for you. And one for ‘feed me’. And ‘I want to go out’…”

Natasha kisses his shoulder, and then goes up on tiptoe to press another to the corner of his jaw. “Alright. You win this one. But she speaks _Russian_ , not English.”

<Is that right?>

That provokes a very enthusiastic mew from the little black cat. Then a long, _exasperated_  meow. 

<Someone’s hungry.>

During the ensuing chorus of _mrow!!_ s that followed, James dropped another little circle of batter onto the pan between two of the pancakes he had cooking. It was done within seconds, and off of the pan. Liho followed it with her eyes as James set it aside. 

Once the first round of pancakes was on the plates, James picked up the tiny pancake. Natasha watched over his shoulder as he held up the tiny pancake to Liho, who sniffed at it, nibbled, and then began to lick it.

“You don’t like my cooking?!” James laughed. “Down, cat. I’ve got to feed someone who actually appreciates me. Nat? A little help?”

Natasha carefully removed Liho from James’s shoulders and dropped her onto the floor. She ignored the huffy little look she got, and then leaned up for another kiss. “Set the table? I’ll get us drinks.”

 


	7. Anon requested: BuckyNat prompt: "I think a double date would be fun" (G)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonus samsteve!

“Remember, James.” Natasha murmured as they walked through the door of the restaurant. “We’ve got company. That means your hand stays out from under my skirt.”

He pouted at her, but it was clear enough that he was being deliberately overdramatic. 

Sam and Steve waited at the table already, their heads together as they talked. They held hands, as well, fingers laced together between them, resting on the table. The sight brought a smile to Natasha’s lips, and she leaned into James’s side. James squeezed her shoulders. Then he raised his free hand to wave to them. Sam saw them first and waved back. 

Natasha took the seat with its back to the main part of the room, for James’s sake, and he gave her a grateful look as he settled into the remaining chair. 

It was… interesting, being out in public as a couple. They had not been able to do it in the Red Room, and while they had gone on many, many dates since getting back together, they had always gone _alone_. Their friends knew about their relationship, of course. A few of them had even had cause to complain about excessive PDA after missions.

(They had also learned that if she and James disappeared after a mission, looking for them was a _bad idea,_ but that was a different story entirely.)

But here they were, with Sam and Steve sitting across from them. It was like all of the times that they had gone out as a group of friends, and yet not at all like that. James kept his left arm around the back of her chair, and Natasha would occasionally re-direct his hand to “steal” a fry, rather than just taking one from the basket. James had positioned it between them, the darling. He knew her so well. 

She missed James playing with the hem of her skirt, his callused fingers on her skin while they talked, but sitting here? She felt almost _giddy_. His arm around her, the presence of their friends, all of it said _he is mine, and I am his_ more clearly than their leaning together in a back booth in a dimly-lit restaurant. 

It felt almost normal. 

They stayed together after they left the restaurant, the four of them making their way toward some ice cream parlor that Sam could not seem to stop praising. With cones in hand, they started the walk back home, tossing jokes back and forth and slipping easily though the crowds on the sidewalks. Natasha popped the end of her cone into her mouth. Her cheeks were beginning to hurt from how much she had been smiling. 

The four of them waved goodbye to one another when they had to part ways, James and Natasha turning toward their apartment, and Sam and Steve slipping off down a different street toward theirs. 

“So. That was fun.” James commented, slipping his arm around her waist. 

There were fewer and fewer people the closer they got to their building and they could walk side by side without receiving glares from the people passing them. Natasha leaned her head on his shoulder and let out a happy sigh.

“It was. I wouldn’t want to do it all the time…”

“Of course not.”

“But once in a while, I think a double date would be fun.


	8. BuckyNat prompt: Cuba and sunburns

Life hack: Don’t send two Eastern Europeans to the tropics when:

  1. One of them cannot move to reapply sunscreen for long stretches of time.
  2. The other one is spending all her time in a bikini near the water.



James and Natasha lay side by side, face down, on the hotel bed. Natasha, lucky her, had gotten there first, and publicly. Her sunburn had benefited earlier from cold water, ice, and aloe. James was still nursing the reddened back of his neck and his ears. At least his gear had kept most of him protected, even if it had been sweltering. They healed quickly, but in the meantime, both of them had reddened and, in Natasha’s case, slightly peeling, skin. 

“I’ll be sleeping like this…” Natasha groused, smushing her face into the sheets. James reaches over and adjusted the ice packs on her back. Then, holding the one on the back of his neck in place, he got up to make her another one with a ziplock bag and the contents of an ice cube tray. 

She let out a happy groan when he set it on the small of her back. “I vote we head to… to Canada next.”

She turned her head toward him and grinned. “To…? Protect the syrup?” She suggested.

James nodded gravely. “That heist a few years back was worth a few million. And syrup is important.”

Natasha’s smile widened. “For pancakes?”

He nodded again. “For pancakes.”

There was a brief pause before both of them dissolved into giggles.


	9. "If I have to search through a thousand lifetimes, I will find you in that world." (G)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ridiculous things James would offer to do for Natasha, shared at 3 am

“I’d follow you to the moon…” James mumbles sleepily into her shoulder, and Natasha snorts.

“That’s highly impractical. Go to sleep.” She pats his hand where it rests on her hip. 

He squeezes a little and wraps his arms more fully around her. She can feel him smiling, now, and her own lips twitch even as she rolls her eyes expansively. Now she’s done it. 

“I would… bring you back a kangaroo from Australia.”

“Please don’t.” She chuckles. “Liho would hate us. And they probably smell.” A pause, and, “Were you reading _Stardust_ again?”

“Maybe.”

The little shit goes and _tickles her_ , then. The only rational response is to whip the pillow out from under his head and smack him with it. That triggers a short wrestling match, and if it were not three a.m. the day they got back from a mission, that would have triggered something else, in turn. Instead, it ends with her lying on his chest, smiling and brushing a piece of hair out of those beautiful eyes of his. 

Natasha leans down for a lazy kiss, and then pulls back with a loud groan as James adds.

“I could try to steal Thor’s hammer for you?”

She flops off of him and pulls her pillow over her head to hide the fact that she is still smiling. James follows her, right hand rubbing up and down her bare back.

“I’d eat your cooking. And roll in the snow.”

She peeks out at him, one eyebrow arched. “Naked?”

“Um.” He looks down. “Probably not.”

Natasha snorts and snuggles into the mattress again. 

James is silent for some time, then, and Natalia thinks he has finally given up. She is almost asleep when he speaks again.

“I’d find you. In any life.” He murmurs, and leans down to kiss between her shoulder blades. “If I have to search through a thousand lifetimes, I will find you in whatever world you are.”

Natasha turns over, tucking her pillow back under her head. The silvery moonlight catches in his eyes and illuminates his sweet, sweet smile. She reaches up and cups his cheek.

“I’d fight aliens and monsters to be with you.”

He seems to realize what he’s said a second after Natasha does, and they both laugh. 

“You’re a dork.” She informs him, and leans up to kiss his smiling mouth.

“I’m your dork.” He replies, once she’s pulled back.

Natasha pretends to deliberate. Then she smiles, pushes his shoulder, and curls up against his side. “You are.” She murmurs. “I love you, you goddamn nerd. Now let me get some _rest_.”

She falls asleep to James’s arms around her, and the beat of his heart beneath her hand.


End file.
